Orpington, Kent Genealogy
Guide to Orpington, Kent ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish register transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.
| Orpington, Kent | |
|---|---|
 Orpington All Saints Kent | |
| Type | Ancient Parish |
| Civil Jurisdictions | |
| Hundred | Ruxley |
| County | Kent |
| Poor Law Union | Bromley |
| Registration District | Bromley |
| Records begin | |
| Parish registers: 1560 | |
| Bishop's Transcripts: 1666 | |
| Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions | |
| Rural Deanery | Shoreham |
| Diocese | Pre-1845 - Rochester; Post-1844 - Canterbury |
| Province | Canterbury |
| Legal Jurisdictions | |
| Probate Court | Pre-1845 - Court of the Peculiar of the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Deaneries of Arches, Croydon and Shoreham; Post-1844 - Search the courts of surrounding parishes |
| Location of Archive | |
| Kent Record Office | |
Contents
Parish History[edit | edit source]
ORPINGTON (All Saints), a parish, in the union of Bromley, hundred of Ruxley, lathe of Sutton-at-Hone, W division of Kent, 3 miles S by W from Foot's-Cray. There is a place of worship for Independents. [1]
Orpington is a suburban town in the London Borough of Bromley Orpington Wikipedia
Orpington All Saints is an Ancient Parish. Chapelries of the Ancient parish include Downe, Kent, St Mary Cray, Kent and Knockholt, Kent
The church was enlarged in 1957 by adding "The new Church" at right angles to the ancient original mediaeval chancel and thus changing the orientation of the interior.
The original Saxon material is still visible in the mediaeval walls. The tower and steeple were damaged by a storm in 1771 and the rebuilt steeple was struck by lightning in 1809 and was not replaced.
See Edward Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 2 (1797), pp. 97-112. 9 September 2013. at British History Online and Kent Churches website
Other Anglican parishes formed from the Ancient Parish include:
- St Paul Crofton Road built as a chapel-of-ease to All Saints in 1887 and formed as an ecclesiastical parish.
- Orpington Christ Church, Charterhouse Road, see Kent Churches website
- Holy Innocents Roman Catholic church. The modern replacement for the original built in 1894.
Orpington Family History Centre, Kent is within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Station Approach
Resources[edit | edit source]
Civil Registration[edit | edit source]
See Bromley Registration district
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.
Church Records[edit | edit source]
Orpington parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:
| Orpington Online Parish Records | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indexes | Images | Indexes | Images | Indexes | Images | |
| BIVRI | 1813-1816, 1850-1851, 1857, 1898 | 1813-1821 | ||||
| BOYD | 1727 | |||||
| FREG | 1560-1812 | 1560-1754 | 1560-1812 | |||
| FS BTs | 1813-1898 | 1813-1898 | 1813-1898 | |||
| FS PRs | 1560-1876 | 1560-1876 | 1560-1876 | |||
| IGI | 1560-1875 | 1560-1876 | ||||
| LBUR | 1703-1747 | |||||
International Genealogical Index Batch Numbers:
Deposited Parish registers are held at Bromley Archives reference P 277 1560-1937
Bromley Central Library
Telephone: 020 8461 7170
Fax: 020 8466 7860
e-mail: localstudies.library@bromley.gov.uk
Kent Online Parish Clerks (OPC)
Nonconformists
International Genealogical Index:
- Old Baptist Meeting 1650-1815 (Births) Batch (C098531)
Land Tax[edit | edit source]
- Images for Orpington are available at FamilySearch Records see England, Kent, Land Tax Assessments - FamilySearch Historical Records 1780-1831.
Census records[edit | edit source]
Census returns for Orpington 1841-1891
FamilySearch Records includes collections of census indexes which can be searched online for free. In addition FamilySearch Centres offer free access to images of the England and Wales Census through FHC Portal Computers here have access to the Family History Centre Portal page which gives free access to premium family history software and websites that generally charge for subscriptions.
- Category:England Family History Centres to locate local Family History Centres in UK
- Introduction to Family History Centers to locate outside UK.
- Many archives and local history collections in public libraries in England and Wales offer online census searches and also hold microfilm or fiche census returns.
Images of the census for 1841-1891 can be viewed in census collections at Ancestry (fee payable) or Find My Past (fee payable).
The 1851 census of England and Wales attempted to identify religious places of worship in addition to the household survey census returns.
Poor Law Unions[edit | edit source]
In the Orpington Vestry minutes P277/8/2 1808-1847 held at Bromley Public Libraries, Local Studies and Archives there is both reference to the purchase of clothing for poor from interest on parish stock in 1814 with the parish giving up possession of poor house, 1815 and establishing a joint workhouse with St. Mary Cray, Orpington parish providing £900, 1815-1816.
At about this time the St Mary Cray burial register shows burials from St Mary Cray Poor House.
The Orpington Vestry Minutes of 3 March 1816 refer to the workhouse to be built on land "near Reynoldsmiths in the parish of St Mary Cray".
Reynolds Smith was a hamlet in St Mary Cray parish close to the parish boundary with Orpington parish and also contained the Red Lion public house.
The workhouse and garden appear as item 46 on the St Mary Cray Tithe Map 1839/40 and the Occupier appears as Samuel Chinock, presumably the master.
See also the St Mary Cray Poor House paragraph in the Bromley Poor Law Union page.
It appears from the vestry Minutes that the larger group of able bodied paupers were from Orpington parish and a Vestry meeting resolved to use these men to repair defective roads in Orpington.
It is worth examining the St Mary Cray burial transcript at Kent Online Parish Clerks if you believe prior to 1844 that an Orpington ancestor may have received parish poor relief and have died in the parish Poor House. From 1844 the Union Workhouse at Locksbottom usually arranged burial in the parish of origin where known on admission; otherwise burials were at Farnborough, Kent
Probate records[edit | edit source]
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Kent Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.
Local Family History Centre[edit | edit source]
- Orpington Family History Centre, Kent is within the London Borough of Bromley, located adjacent to Orpington Station and on major bus routes through the borough.
- FHC Portal This centre has access to the Family History Centre Portal page which gives free access in the centre to premium family history software and websites that generally charge for subscriptions.
- Publication of the restricted access images England, Kent, Wills and Probate - FamilySearch Historical Records and England, Kent, Land Tax Assessments - FamilySearch Historical Records means that it is advisable to telephone the centre to reserve a computer if you wish to view these collections using the portal.
Maps and Gazetteers[edit | edit source]
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.
Websites[edit | edit source]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Lewis, Samuel A., A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 483-486. Date accessed: 17 April 2013.
- ↑ 'British Isles Vital Records Index - 2nd Ed. Breakdown of Records', Genoot, accessed 7 November 2013.
- ↑ Percival Boyd, A List of Parishes in Boyd's Marriage Index (London: Society of Genealogists, 1987).
- ↑ 'Kent Coverage', FreeREG, accessed 6 November 2013.
- ↑ 'England, Kent, Bishop's Transcripts, 1560-1911,' FamilySearch, accessed 11 November 2013.
- ↑ 'England, Kent, Parish Registers, 1538-1911,' FamilySearch, accessed 13 November 2013.
- ↑ Hugh Wallis, 'IGI Batch Numbers for Kent, England,' IGI Batch Numbers, accessed 18 November 2013.
- ↑ "Boyd's London Burials Index - places and counts," Find My Past, accessed 8 June 2011. Indexes adult male burials only (4 entries).
